Two congressional watchdogs Monday called on the Office of Congressional Ethics to conduct a preliminary inquiry into reports that U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan ignored complaints of sexual abuse by a former doctor for Ohio State’s wrestling team.

WASHINGTON ........................................

In the complaint, Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer and former White House chief ethics lawyer Norman Eisen say the Urbana Republican violated a clause in House rules requiring members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.”

The complaint argues that “there is a direct and irreconcilable conflict between the public statements made by seven former Ohio State student wrestlers that Rep. Jordan knew wrestling team members were being sexually abused by the team doctor, and Rep. Jordan’s denial that he had any knowledge of the abuses.”

The watchdogs — Eisen was an ethics lawyer for the Obama administration — say that if the accounts are true and Jordan is lying, then the House Ethics Committee should investigate..........